ONI Diaries:Operations from the Final Cycle
by ForsakenSpartan
Summary: A One-shot series used to clarify the history and times of my story series 'The Final Cycle'. Enjoy these one-shot battles, missions and chatter between special people within the series.
**AN:With this chapter, I start a series of one-shots based around my story, to show a bit of the backstory of the 'The Final Cycle' books. First Call, the 12-year-old Blue Spartans vs Turians on the ruined Shanxi. Enjoy!**

 ** _'Only the dead have seen the end of the war'-Plato_**

 _ **Turian-occupied UNSC Colony of Shanxi  
Capital of New Alexandria  
JUNE/4/2548 UNSC MILITARY CALENDAR**_

A squad of Turian soldiers, all armed with standard-issue Phaeston Assault Rifle, sat together, eating from their reserves of dextro-amino acid food reserves. One was standing on-guard, a soldier with a silver-red combat armor and white tattoos across his avian-like face. His mandibles were twitching in anticipation as he looked about on the empty, shelled street of the once-human Megalopolis of New Alexandria, now nothing more than a ruin. Destroyed cars, UNSC vehicles and Main Battle Tanks littered the streets, large chunks of debris had smashed into the hard concrete below, dust had just settled from the orbital bombardment and then, the artillery shelling the Artillery Regiment on the hills around gave them. On the road, UNSC Marines' bodies were slumped and laying dead, shattered, pools of blood surrounding them and their destroyed weaponry. The different human weapons, from MA5B assault rifles, to the infamous Armor and Kinetic Barrier-Piercing Designated Marksman Rifles the Turians so-feared, now lay broken onto the floor. Craters pockmarked the street, from mortars, grenades and the likes, while walls were peppered with bullet holes.

The Turian guard scoffed, then looked to one of his comrades, a female Marine of the Third Palaven Honor Regiment. She was thinner than the Turians around and on her left eye, she wore a scanning goggle. She nodded, stood up, grabbing her Phaeston, then walked beside the Turian guard. She nodded to him, then articulated one of her three fingers, the 'thumb', then pointed back, to which the guard nodded, walking back to eat some of his rations too. He sat down, placing his Phaeston next to him as the others welcomed him, while the Marine sighed, examining her Phaeston. She smacked her bawled fist into it twice, knocking a cartridge that was stuck in it out. It dropped onto the floor, next to a spent SRS-95 Human sniper cartridge. The sniper round dwarfed the small assault rifle round, its bullet twice the size of that Turian one too.

She leaned in and knelt, then picked both casings up off the ground. Spent rounds, now souvenirs for her. She slid them into her armor's right-hand-side chest pocket, then looked back to her comrades, shock streaking across her face, her eyes wide, pupils dilated...

They were all dead... Shots to the head...

She snapped her rifle toward them, walking toward them slowly. A cold shiver crept up her spine as she scanned her surrounding area. Her Motion Tracker didn't detect anything for miles. She pushed one of her comrades, hoping he just fell asleep. He slumped over, dead. On and around the others, purple fluorescent blood trickled down, onto the ammo boxes they used for chairs, to the debris-covered floor. The Turian woman was shivering and, as she heard two pairs of boots drop in, she turned her rifle backward and shot twice, missing. Afterward, a shot streaked in, leaving a white, smoked trail in the air and blasting her right between the eyes. Grey matter, bone, soft tissue and hard outer shell splattered onto the floor and wall behind as the Turian fell dead, limp, onto the ground.

The 12-year-old command pair of Spartan Blue team walked up, out of the shadows. Petty Officer second class Kelly-087, donning her newly-developed MJOLNIR suit, stepped out of the shadows and beside her, Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 sat with his MA5/Special Operations modified Assault Rifle in-hand. He nodded to Kelly, who hoisted up the Turian counter to the human weapons, the Phaeston, from beside the dead Marine, then examined it, grinned behind her helmet and cocked it, then nodded to the Chief. Behind them, their sniper and probably the one who had saved them right then and there, Linda-058 dropped in, her Sniper Rifle System slung behind her back. She nodded to both of them.

"Top-notch accuracy, as always." John said, snapping the safety off his assault rifle. Two more Spartans dropped in. Will-043 and Fred-104 landed behind them with two silent thuds and Fred snapped his BR-55X Battle Rifle forward, while Will readied his shotgun. On their hips were M6/SOCOM Magnum silenced pistols. The squad of five met in the middle of the room, pushing Turian bodies away into a corner and cleaning the box they had used as a table of food and other items. John pulled out his Reader Tablet he kept in his Armor's pocket, then placed it on the table and thumbed it. A holographic 3D map appeared ahead of them, a map of New Alexandria, on which five red dots flashed.

"We know our targets." John said, examining the map thoroughly. "We take out what's nearest to us first." He pointed at the closest dot relative to their location. Something atop a ruined skyscraper. "One of five Helix Anti-Air batteries restricting extraction for us and Gray Team via Prowler. Main target for us, now, to punch a hole through air defense and get ourselves and our friends home. Any questions?"

His team-mates shook their heads.

"Good." John said, taking his Reader tablet and slinging it back into his pocket. "Mission counter reads 12 hours 55 minutes on the clock. 13 hours we've been on the ground. Get moving. Lets finish this in the fourteenth." He unslung his silenced AR and cocked the bolt back, hearing a satisfying click as the round got fed into the barrel then checked the ammo counter. A full 64 bullets. He nodded to himself, then to his friends and the five stepped off in a sprint through the ruin-city. Around them, marks of the firefights that took place on the ground. Dead marines, littered with the Mass Effect-field enhanced bullets, holes through their bodies the size of a thumb, but that tore through vital organs. Civilians slumped dead on the walls, dead as well.

They'd heard from reports ground combat was hell... Nothing like this though.

Ahead of them, the thunder of a heavy gun sounded off, as well as the roar of rocket fire. The Spartans took cover by the corner of a street entry intersection. John was ahead, scanning the forward area with his assault rifle and eyes wide. His MT detected motion up ahead, a few floors above them. He looked up, to see a darkened sky, covered by black clouds and billowing smoke pluming upward in columns, on the rooftop of a medium-tall building, an Anti-Aerial battery formed of two AA Flak Guns and a single Soil-Air missile pod. Two rockets arched upward from the truck, leaving exhaust fume trails behind it as the two AA Guns opened up, their Mass Effect Fields accelerating the Flak shells at speeds past that of sound, keeping the unlucky sonovabitch up there pinned as the Rockets prepared to strike. A medevac Pelican. The rockets struck, a gigantic detonation ensuing above and lighting up the dark-clouded sky like a second sun.

John sighed, then looked to the right of where he was sitting, to see a small bit of debris, blocked by a car, small enough a covered perch for a sniper to sit in. He signaled Linda to move in and set up. The young girl unslung her rifle, checked and rechecked it, dashed and dived for the piece of cover, then set up her bipod and on it, the SRS. Chief looked at her slow down, enter something she called the zen 'no-thought' mode. The girl cocked her sniper's bolt back almost mechanically, then nodded, knowing John was staring at her. John signaled Kelly and Fred to move up, while Will stayed behind, his Sparrowhawk, or SPnKr rocket launcher in his hand. The boy nodded, rushed to the back, behind a car and set up, hefting the two-barrel launcher up onto the car's angled hood.

John looked ahead, to see Fred and Kelly at the ready. Kelly gave him a thumbs up, then signaled him forward. The Spartan sprinted quickly, enough that he wasn't sighted, slid into cover next to his friends, then hefted his assault rifle onto the edge of the cover, stabilizing it. Kelly pointed forward at a patrol of five Turian soldiers moving away from them, weapons on their backs, collapsed. They weren't expecting anyone to be within the city anymore, so right now it was normal for them to be like this. Nearly disarmed. John nodded, signaled Kelly to move right and pull out her M6 silenced, then to Fred to move and ready to fire with his silenced Battle Rifle. The two nodded, then moved toward some elevated cover, took it and readied their weapons.

The Spartan leveled his assault rifle for the targets himself, then looked to Linda. A green LED light burned bright green on the Chief's HUD. The girl was ready. His friends' lights burned bright green too. Good... Meant the squad was good to go too. John nodded, took aim for the closest one, then readied himself to squeeze the trigger. As the Turians turned toward them, as of yet not sighting them. The smallest of smiles formed on John's face, then he nodded. His Assault Rifle pattered, silenced by the muzzle attachment and AP rounds impacted the group of Turian soldiers. John heard Linda's rifle go off beside him, silenced too, then saw a Turian's right mandible and half his face fly clean off as he twisted 180 degrees then fell dead onto the floor, blood spurting from his shattered face. The other Turians fell dead, assault rifle and BR55 fire shattering the patrol.

Not enough...

Two more squads poured out of the building the AA Battery was set on and opened fire. Phaeston bullets impacted the Chief's cover as he ducked behind it, seeing Kelly and Fred do the same. Linda's sniper cracked three times, three more Turians down. She reloaded it, then fired and fired.

" _Chief, they have us zeroed in!"_ Kelly yelled through com.

" _They have mortars on that building that they're aiming for us."_ Linda answered through her Radio, voice dull.

John looked up to see the artillery pieces, massive Mass Cannon-style Mortars, two elongated barrels pointing upward from the buildings, like Antennae. John sighed, then nodded to his friends. He relayed two quick orders through com... 'Search and Destroy'. Linda moved from her position and Chief heard the thunder of the MAC Rounds as they arched upward. He jumped from his cover...

and the world shattered around him.

The detonation sent him tumbling forward thanks to its incredible strength. He landed back on his feet, reloaded his Assault rifle then fired off toward the Turian squads and looked to his friends.

"Push!" He barked, setting his assault rifle to full auto and firing. "We aren't staying out here with those Mortars firing at us!"

"Aye!" Fred, Linda and Kelly chorused. They heard a thunder and saw two exhaust trails extend outward. Will had fired his SPnKr. The rockets arched, weaved and bobbed and one hit the right-hand mortal, but the other blew up, shattering the wall below the other. The squad pushed forward, Will and Linda joining them with Submachineguns out. They opened fire, tearing the Turian squads apart, then rushed into the building.

Tight, shot-up corridors, dead bodies, close quarters and much more greeted them inside. Nothing they wanted to see anyhow. Kelly took point, shotgun level as they moved up the stairs, scanning left and right for contacts. On the first floor, it was clear. On the second, clear. On the third, clear. Fourth and fifth had close encounters. John pulled his knife out and gutted a Turian, stabbing a second through its thick skull, then shooting a third with his Assault Rifle, his team clearing out the rest. On the sixth floor, however, there was more of a situation. The Spartan squad moved next to a hole in the wall, then John and Kelly tried to cross to the other side, but received Phaeston shots, which bounced off his armor's Titanium-A Plating.

Chief snapped his assault rifle toward the Turians, then opened up. The offices on this floor provided good cover, but shots still tore through the plastic, cardboard and glass that formed the place. Three Turians fell in the first Assault volley from the squad. The Spartans managed to suppress their first contacts, then rushed into the room at knife point. Fred pulled out his dual Bowie knives, engaging a Turian Sentinel in close proximity. The Alien's arms flared bright orange, and on them, two blood-red hot silicate-carbide blades formed. Fred defended a blow from one, then hit the Turian in the chest with his boot. The Turian struck again and again. Fred dodged twice, then a blade hit too close for comfort, melting pan inch of the metallic floor Fred was on. The Spartan sliced at the Turian's throat, cutting clean through, then hit for the gut, punching through its armor three times out of five stabs. He looked to Kelly finishing off one with her shotgun, John blasting two in a burst from his Assault Rifle and Linda and Will killing the last few with their SMGs.

As the squad made it to the roof, they were greeted by heavy fire again. Turian Sentinels, Engineers and Veterans engaged them at barrel's end. John kicked one off the top of the building, then pointed to the MAC Mortar. Will and Fred nodded, Kelly and Linda flanked John, helping him clear the roof out. Of the platoon of Fifty turians on the roof, half had already fallen when Fred and Will manned the Mortar. The Spartans tapped their com twice and John, Kelly and Linda retreated. Fred looked to Will, made the two-finger Spartan Smile on his visor, then nodded. The two hoisted the MAC Gun toward the AA Battery, leveled it for the target and loaded a Scatter Blast and...

Fired...

The entire roof collapsed where the ships were, shattering the vehicles, blowing them apart as they fell into the building below. John sighed in relief, taking his helmet off, then looked to his friends, who walked toward him and knelt by his side. Kelly was smiling without her helmet on. She nodded to the chief, then pointed back. Team Gray, lead by Adrianna had arrived behind them, giving Chief a thumbs up, and above them, the Prowler _Umbra_ decloaked. John leaned back and sighed, smiling, then stood up and nodded to his friends. The groups boarded the vehicles, then ttook off, leaving with the Prowler, back to home and away from the Turians...


End file.
